I have been looking forward to doing this review since April
2014. That was the time when my rum journey took a huge turn for the better and more exciting
(and economically dismal).

At that time I decided to go way outside my usual rum
comfort zone – both in style, strength and cost.

After reading through a couple of writings (countless times) of
these majestic Velier rums over on my buddy Lance’s Lone Caner site, I decided
to jump right in and get one of these pieces of art myself.

Having absolutely no idea of what I was getting into, except
for what I could read on Lance’s site, I also had no idea which one to choose
as my first.

They all just looked so awesome, so I started roaming
international web shops to find the rums, I had been reading about and to see
what was actually available.

After finding several shops with Velier rums on their shelves, for
some reason this particular rum just spoke to me in a special way.

After a long, hard weighing of pros and cons, I finally gathered my personal and
economical courage, punched in my credit card details, decided not to look
back and instantly turned into a kid waiting for Christmas.

When it showed up, it was placed on a shelf next to the rest
of my (at that time) very small rum collection, but after flirting with it for a
couple of days, I decided to open it.

I had to find out what was so special
about these Velier products and see if I was 40% boy or a cask strength man (No disrespect to all you 40% boys out there, but cask strength is just more badass).

Could it really be that much better than all the other great
rums I had tried so far - stuff like the Diplomatico ResEx, the El Dorado 15, the Quorhum 30 and several
others from more or less the same league.

After trying it, I was hooked. Velier was now forever burned
into my frontal lobe, and it would push my rum journey into new waters. Waters
which I am very thankful to still be sailing in today.

When I finally started writing about rum, I was a little
reluctant to write about the UF30E, because as much as it meant to my rum
journey, I was also a little awe-struck with it. And that made me procrastinate
this review for quite a while. Much like the Skeldon 73, which I had standing around (the sample anyway) for a very long time before even considering opening it.

I somehow felt that I had to gather a little more experience before I was ready.

But now the time has finally come. Oh yes, time has come.

With that trip down memory lane, we are now back in the present
looking at another handsome piece of Gargano magic.

The Velier UF30E 1985.

Bottled in 2012, we are dealing with a 27 year old Uitvlugt
rum. The name refers to the exact field the sugarcane behind this rum was harvested
from. The Uitvlugt Field #30 East. Or so the scholars of Velier rums proclaim.
And that is fine by me. Sounds plausible enough anyway.

814 bottles very made, next to none are left and I'm sad to say that I managed to buy way to
few of them before they disappeared.

No more introduction. On to more interesting things. But
first, a slightly boring intermezzo.

Presentation

Once again the usual stoic Velier Demerara expression.

A sturdy card board box in green and yellow colours.

All the information you need is right there on the box.

The bottle is also familiar. The opaque, black mastodon we
have gotten so used to, when dealing with Velier.

Front label is an exact replica of the information on the
box, and on the back, the usually little Italian sweet talk. Along with the
”>90% angels share”. This is serious rum.

Inside we find a beautiful dark brown coloured liquid, which
leaves a thin, thin coating of the inside of the glass. Twirling only creates
a barely visible ring at the top, which transforms into many, many small dots,
which crawl slowly down.

Nose

Pulling the cork, you have to brace yourself, as the
fumes start to assault your sense immediately. Something huge is coming. You can tell already when pouring
this thing.

Far from the glass, a delicious smell is noticeable, and when
moving closer, it just gets more and more powerful.

Draped in fat honey and liquid liquorice, which flows around
the molasses core, like a fog of deliciousness.

A cornucopia of dried dates and figs, as well as prunes and huge,
juicy raisins.

Underneath it all a floor of soft oaks with a little tannic
sting and a carpet of sweet cinnamon rolls.

Absolutely stunning and it makes an effort not to make it difficult for you to easily pick it apart.

Taste

Entering the mouth it presents itself in a way, which isn’t
seen very often.

First it introduces itself with huge molasses,
liquorice and juice raisins.

Then without warning it sets of a thermonuclear bomb of heat and flavours.

At first, the initial trinity of flavours expands violently.

Then massive, intense warmth, which help the entire
expression to grow to a size, where you think it’ll be too much, and your mouth (and possibly your face)
might explode.

The first 4-5 times I tried this rum, I gave in, had to
cough and let in a little air. I simply couldn’t contain it. It is that huge a
flavour bomb.

But when I finally learned how to control it, it just got
mindblowingly beautiful.

The trinity was still there, but then came an added layer of
sweet marmalades made from cherries, apricots, blackberries and raspberries.

Then spice. Cinnamon, vanilla, cloves and white pepper.

Thinking that it couldn’t get any deeper, I was surprised by
a layer of leather and smoke, before realising there was also some really juice
green apples and even a little orange in there.

Getting closer to the end, some honey and roasted oak to add
another dimension, with just enough tannic bite to make it a little dry.

And then, at the very bottom of this insane dive, the dried
fruits extravaganza from the nose.

Mind blowing. This has to be among the top 5 things I ever
tasted. Not just rums, but everyting edible or drinkable by humans.

Finish

When I first tried this rum, I had a hard time believing how
long the finish was. It just goes on forever.

The huge explosion slowly dies out, but it takes its
time as it has to go through all the flavour layers of the palate once more.

I’m not going to repeat them all. But let me just say, that
you are treated with a fading reprise of every single scent and flavour
presented to you so far.

When the fade stops just short of a complete disappearance,
you are left with such a pleasant aftertaste of sweet liquorice, soft oak and blackberry
jam, that you really don’t want to eat or drink anything else as long as it’s
there.

And it will stay there for long. 15-20 minutes go by in a
hurry when you sit back and savour the moment after downing your first sip. Exhaling through the nose you'll be able to reintroduce a little heat, which makes the experience seem longer lasting.

It is just so tasty, so beautiful, that you can’t really be
disturbed. And you mustn’t.

A rum of this magnitude deserves a lot of attention,
presence and respect. Especially when taking into account that this might be an era long gone.

Oh yeah, and by the way, this is a 60,7% rum. I totally
forgot to mention that, as the strength is so incredibly well integrated, that you'll
never really notice it. Apart from the nuclear explosion of flavours that is.

Rating and final
thoughts

Considering that this was my first cask strength rum and my
first Velier, I could have done worse. Coming to think of it, I’m not sure I
could have done much better at that time.

It has perhaps evolved into the pinnacle of rum for me. One
of the absolute best things I ever tasted. And in the rum world, perhaps rivalled only by the Skeldon 73 so far.

For me, the UF30E is very much on par with the Skeldon 73, and perhaps even a tiny smidgen better. It is
a damn close call, that’s for sure.

Value for money is not really relevant here. First, you have
to find a bottle. Then, you have to pony up more than a thousand euros for one (the last one I saw went for €1500).
There is a threshold for sure, but no matter how much you pay for this baby,
you are probably going to feel that is was a bargain, once you get to taste it.

It absolutely blew my mind when I first tried it. It has blown my
mind countless times since then. It has blown the minds of everybody I shared
it with. And it still blows my mind today, more than 2 years since I first bought
it (thank you, who ever told me to split my bottle into smaller bottles
once I opened it!).

This is a truly extraordinary rum.

I hope that this
meagre piece of writing will end up at the desk of the DDL CEO, and that he actually
takes notice, and stops destroying his ancient rums by blending them into the sugarbombs of
ED21 and ED25. Please stop doing that, DDL! Every time you do that, Baby Rum-Jesus cries!

Instead, you should create rums like this.

Real rums. Pure rums. Amazing rums. Rums that will live on
in the memories of the many rum lovers out there. Rums which will be spoken of with awe and respect long after they have vanished from stores and collections and become mere ghosts of a time long gone. Rums which will enter the legacy
of rum, and ultimately help make the spirit just as huge and prestigious as
whisky and cognac.

I know that DDL put out the Rare Collection line of rums recently, but they are still not on par with bottles like this one. Not even close.

This is an amazing rum beyond all reason, and I don’t possess an adequate vocabulary to do it enough justice. It is stellar. It has no
mentionable flaws. It is in no way casual. It chuckles at your expectations
before easily exceeding them by light years.

So how to rate this?

It really is a singularity in the spirits universe. It is way off
the charts.
Perhaps that is what the result should be. Or at least somewhere in the vicinity of absolute perfection. That
calls for a…

Consider this: When I first got a bottle of this, it had been on the market for nearly two years along with a lot of other Velier rums in a price range of the Diplomatico Ambassador, Havana Club 15, Abuelo Centuria or two bottles of (pardon my french) fucking Zacapa Black Label!

Please explain to me how rums like these survived more than two years in the shops?!

Today they would sell out in mere hours or even minutes after being released and at a price two or even three times as high. Rum certainly has evolved in the last few years!

Word count

"Are you sure this is your longest single review to date? I'm pretty sure that the Skeldon 73-review is also quite long." - you may think.

And you would be right. The Skeldon 73 review was also quite long.

It contained 8.682 characters excluding spaces and line breaks, making up 1.946 words.

But this review contains 8.765 excluding spaces and line breaks, which makes up 1.983 words, making this the longest single Rum Corner review to date.

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Copyright is inherent when an original work is created. This means that the producer of original work is automatically granted copyright protection. Whether explicitly stated on the relevant post or page or not, all of the work produced on this blog is protected by copyright, including pictures, graphics and all of the articles. These original works may not be copied, quoted or reused in any way whatsoever without the permission of the author Henrik Kristoffersen